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Final Fantasy XV Will Have Multiple Battle Modes

Slowly yet surely more information is trickling in about Final Fantasy XV, the storied and troubled next step in the certainly not final Final Fantasy franchise. In a recent developer post on the Final Fantasy XV forums, Lead Game Designer Takizawa Masashi responded to a question about the difficulty in the game as far as XP, stats, damage, etc. What we actually got instead is an answer that in some ways answers the question, but leaves more questions in its wake.

What Masashi detailed in his short post was the difficulty in the same will come down to two settings: one setting is more action-oriented and technical. The other mode will be slower, more relaxed, so “[gamers] can all enjoy the combat in their own style.” It also seems this system was introduced due to the demo that was released last June and the feedback they received from that.

Effectively, it seems like Square Enix is attempting to cast its net pretty wide with this game. They wants to include players who enjoy the game style from classic Final Fantasy games (which, let’s admit, is a bit less technical in the timing sense), as well as gamers who enjoy more action-focused gameplay like that from Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy Type-0. Including an option for different forms of gameplay may have the downside of potentially delaying the release of the game even more (or then again, it might not. I’m not a developer.), but it could potentially mean a better game in all.

This wasn’t the only question developers responded to, however. Another question involved how large the map will be and how much we’ll be able to explore. While the planner Ishikawa Tomonori couldn’t quite give away too much about the main city, Altissia, he did say “The city is of a considerable scale, to the extent that even the developers sometimes get lost there!” Apparently the city will include cafes, market places, and “some unique characters.”

The last question answered was one of warp points and whether buildings will have multiple points to allow Noctis to scale buildings, to which the Lead Level Designer Terada Takefume responded “Why of course they will!” He also revealed that these warp points will have a lot of play in “large scale battles over urban terrain.” That certainly could make for some really interesting combat if I am understanding properly.

The real takeaway from this is that Final Fantasy XV is still chugging along, and we should expect to be hearing more about it as time goes on. With this game, the Final Fantasy VII remake, and Kingdom Hearts 3 all lined up in Square Enix’s back pocket, the future is looking bright. Then again… that’s if they ever release any of those titles.

About Stephen Crane

Stephen was hooked by the NES at a very young age and never looked back. He games on a daily basis and is currently trying to climb his way up the ranked ladder on League of Legends!
Outside of the video game world he actually likes running and owns a rapidly growing collection of toed shoes. Stephen Crane is the owner of Armed Gamer.